


Hurricane Lorelai

by fourteenlines



Category: Gilmore Girls
Genre: First Meetings, Gen, Origin Story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-15
Updated: 2020-01-15
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:35:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22265728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fourteenlines/pseuds/fourteenlines
Summary: He didn't like her at first. She was loud and messy and a bad mother and polluted her body with stimulants.The feeling lasted somewhat less than an hour.
Relationships: Lorelai Gilmore & Rory Gilmore, Luke Danes & Lorelai Gilmore
Kudos: 15





	Hurricane Lorelai

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted circa 2007 for WIP amnesty. But it's basically a ficlet in itself, so.

It was a cold, rainy morning the first time Lorelai came charging into his diner, Rory in her wake. Rory was probably six or seven, which meant that Lorelai was in her early twenties. He'd heard about her, of course, mostly from Miss Patty, who being between husbands was naturally drawn toward a whiff of sexual scandal. Rachel had just left for the first time, and the diner had been open a mere five months. People still referred to it as "William's Hardware." Luke was standing at the counter polishing glasses, utterly alone.  
  
"So, do you make a decent cup of coffee?" she asked, before the door even shut and certainly before she peeled out of her coat and left it sitting in a lump on one of the empty tables. "If you make a better cup of coffee than Al's Pancake World, I may have to propose marriage. I'm done drinking that swill. I think he reheats."  
  
He told her he didn't drink coffee, and pointed out she wouldn't know unless she tried it. Rory piped up with, "His logic is impressive," and didn't make it sound like an insult. He was suspicious of kids who knew words of more than two syllables.  
  
Lorelai and Rory exchanged a glance, then ordered two cups.  
  
"Oh, come on," he protested. "You can't give a kid a cup of coffee. It'll stunt her growth."  
  
"Old wive's tale. Rory has to drink coffee, or she'd dehydrate," Lorelai said, deeply engrossed in a menu. "It's what we drink when the milk spoils. Rory, when was the last time we had unspoiled milk?"  
  
"I think I was still breast-feeding," the kid said.  
  
"How about water? Or juice, ever try juice?" he suggested acidly.  
  
Lorelai tore her gaze away from the menu and looked at him like he'd just suggested torture.  
  
In the end, he only gave them one cup. They shared and begged for more.  
  
He didn't like her at first. She was loud and messy and a bad mother and polluted her body with stimulants.  
  
The feeling lasted somewhat less than an hour.  
  
As they left, he unbent enough to say, "Thanks for coming to Luke's Diner."  
  
She paused, wide-eyed. "I thought this was William's Hardware."  
  
He stared, and wasn't quite sure whether her tone of voice meant she was joking. "Does this look like a hardware store to you?"  
  
She smirked and gestured at the counter. "You never know what you've got in that storeroom of yours. Actually, I think I was in here once when it was a hardware store."  
  
Luke was stunned almost to silence. "Then you've met my father," he managed finally.  
  
"Oh. That would be William? He suggested I didn't know how to use a hammer properly."  
  
Luke started to stammer an apology but she cut him off with, "No, it's okay. It turned out I didn't know how to use a hammer properly. It took months for the thumbnail to grow back." He nodded dumbly and she paused once more on the way to the door. "Not that I'd ever agree with Taylor Doose under normal circumstances, but you really should have a sign that lets people know they'll find food inside, and not, I don't know, allen wrenches." She said this with an air of someone choosing a foreign word without the faintest idea what they were actually talking about. "Stars Hollow gets a lot of tourists."  
  
"Yeah," he grunted, "I'll think about it."  
  
Her brows rose. "You do that, Duke."  
  
Then she was gone in a flurry of red knit scarves and rainwater and leaves blown in from outside.  
  
Hurricane Lorelai.  
  
The next week, he commissioned a sign painter from Hartford to paint the word "Food" on his windows. Lorelai never did propose marriage, but she did eventually start to call him by the right name.


End file.
